Personal mobility vehicles, including but not limited to motorized mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs, have become common place for people with slight or severe disablements to move about independently. With the increased use of these vehicles, there is a demand for vehicles that may be modified to assist the user with transporting articles.
Personal mobility vehicles in and of themselves, have minimal means for transporting goods. Although devices for expanding the cargo capacity for personal mobility vehicles have been known in the art for quite some time, they are typically designed only for a single or dual purpose and have to be detached from the vehicle and a different device attached to carry out another purpose. For example, there are holder systems that are designed to hold walking aids such as crutches, canes, and walkers, which are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,547,112. U.S. Publication No. 2012/0187265 also describes a carrier that is attached to a mobility vehicle, but it is limited to transporting minimal items that can fit into the base support of the carrier. There are other carriers that have been designed to attach to the back of the motorized vehicles in order to tow large quantities of goods, but these carriers are large, bulky, and decrease the maneuverability of the vehicle because they are in contact with the ground and are merely towed behind the vehicle. For example, U.S. Publication No. 2006/0220346 describes a trailer that can be attached to the rear of a motorized vehicle and U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,029 describes a luggage carrier that can be attached to the rear of a wheelchair. U.S. Pat. No. 7,967,174 describes a basket that can be secured to the back of a motorized vehicle to carry large quantities of goods, but this carrier is bulky and may tip the carrier over if there are heavy goods placed in the basket.
Thus, there is a need in the art for providing a multi-purpose article carrier for a personal mobility vehicle or other powered mobility vehicle that is compact and light weight so as to not interfere with the maneuverability of the vehicle. It is an object of this invention to provide an improved removable attachable multi-purpose carrier that is light weight and easy to install.